Abstract
This practice-based and interdisciplinary doctoral research develops methods for participatory and ethically engaged architectural research. Drawing on over a decade of architectural practice, it proposes practice-as-paradigm: a mode of knowledge production grounded in making, relation, and reflection. Centred on the Southampton Way estate in south-east London, the research develops a reflexive and diffractive methodology attentive to affective-knowing—tacit, embodied, and emotional knowledge—alongside technical expertise. Drawing on radical democratic theory, it treats participation as performative and political, where care and conflict co-produce insight. Models, prototypes, and installations operate as heuristic and epistemic artefacts through which collaboration, negotiation, and play generate situated understanding. Rather than reporting empirical outcomes, the paper articulates the early methodological development of a framework connecting architectural design, social science, and ethical reflection. In doing so, it positions architectural practice as an epistemic and ethical mode of inquiry through which collective investigation and democratic participation can be explored.
Keywords
practice-as-paradigm, participation, affective-knowing, practice-based research
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2395
Citation
Harvey, T. (2026) Practice-as-paradigm: Towards ethical and affective methodologies in participatory architectural research, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2395
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Practice-as-paradigm: Towards ethical and affective methodologies in participatory architectural research
This practice-based and interdisciplinary doctoral research develops methods for participatory and ethically engaged architectural research. Drawing on over a decade of architectural practice, it proposes practice-as-paradigm: a mode of knowledge production grounded in making, relation, and reflection. Centred on the Southampton Way estate in south-east London, the research develops a reflexive and diffractive methodology attentive to affective-knowing—tacit, embodied, and emotional knowledge—alongside technical expertise. Drawing on radical democratic theory, it treats participation as performative and political, where care and conflict co-produce insight. Models, prototypes, and installations operate as heuristic and epistemic artefacts through which collaboration, negotiation, and play generate situated understanding. Rather than reporting empirical outcomes, the paper articulates the early methodological development of a framework connecting architectural design, social science, and ethical reflection. In doing so, it positions architectural practice as an epistemic and ethical mode of inquiry through which collective investigation and democratic participation can be explored.